Assistant Head of Home - Childrens Residential

Location: Aylesbury

Overview

We are looking for a passionate and experienced Assistant Head of Home to join our Family Assessment Centre based in Aylesbury . This is an exciting opportunity to play a key leadership role in creating a safe, nurturing, and supportive environment where parents and their children can thrive. Working closely with the Registered Manager, you will support the day-to-day leadership and management of the service, oversee the delivery of high-quality assessments and support programmes, and help develop a skilled and motivated staff team.

As Assistant Head of Home, you will be instrumental in empowering families to build confidence, develop their parenting skills, and achieve positive outcomes, ensuring that children's welfare remains at the heart of everything we do

Take a look at our Childrens Residential Candidate Pack for more information

About the role

You will help ensure the delivery of high-quality, safe, and effective services, creating a nurturing environment where families are empowered to make positive changes and achieve the best possible outcomes for their children

Working as part of the leadership team, you will oversee the day-to-day running of the service, provide guidance and supervision to staff, and promote a culture of excellence, learning, and continuous improvement. You will champion safeguarding, ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, and support the delivery of trauma-informed practices that place children's welfare at the heart of everything we do.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the Head of Home in the leadership and day-to-day management of the service, ensuring high standards of care, safeguarding, and operational performance are maintained.
• Lead, supervise and develop residential staff, promoting a positive culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and reflective practice.
• Conduct regular supervision, appraisal and performance management activities, identifying training and development needs within the team.
• Ensure the delivery of high-quality, child-centred and trauma-informed care that supports positive outcomes for children, young people and families.
• Promote and maintain a strong safeguarding culture, supporting child protection processes and ensuring compliance with all legislative and regulatory requirements.
• Oversee risk assessments, incident management and safeguarding investigations, ensuring effective recording, reporting and follow-up actions.
• Work collaboratively with professionals, partner agencies and families to ensure effective care planning, assessment processes and support arrangements.
• Monitor the progress, development and wellbeing of children and young people, ensuring care plans are implemented effectively and reviewed regularly.
• Support the efficient operation of the home, including staffing, resource management, compliance monitoring and budget oversight.
• Maintain accurate records, reports and management information systems in line with statutory and organisational requirements.
• Contribute to recruitment, induction, service development and quality improvement initiatives to enhance outcomes and strengthen practice.
• Build and maintain effective relationships with external stakeholders, regulatory bodies and community partners, representing the service professionally.
• Respond effectively to emergencies and critical incidents, providing leadership, guidance and support to staff and residents.
• Deputise for the Head of Home when required, ensuring continuity of leadership, care standards and operational oversight.
• Promote equality, diversity and inclusion, ensuring services are responsive to the needs of children and families from a wide range of backgrounds

Fixed

As a 'fixed' worker, you'll spend most of your time in the same location, which will likely be a fixed office or location where your role is performed. Typically, you'll be based in the same location as the rest of your team, because you provide a particular service from that fixed location or need access to information there.

About you

Could This Be You?

We're looking for an experienced and compassionate leader who is passionate about achieving positive outcomes for children, young people, and families. You will bring a strong understanding of safeguarding, residential childcare, and assessment-based services, alongside the ability to inspire, develop, and support a high-performing team.

You will have:

• Experience working in a residential childcare, family assessment, or social care setting, with supervisory or management responsibilities.
• A strong understanding of safeguarding, child protection procedures, and relevant legislation, standards, and regulations.
• Proven leadership skills with the ability to motivate, coach, and develop staff to deliver outstanding practice.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build effective relationships with families, colleagues, and partner agencies.
• Experience of managing challenging situations, making informed decisions, and maintaining high professional standards.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise workloads, manage competing demands, and maintain accurate records.
• A commitment to delivering child-centred, trauma-informed practice that promotes positive outcomes and supports long-term stability.
• Experience contributing to quality assurance, service improvement, and regulatory compliance.
• The ability to lead by example, demonstrate resilience, and remain calm under pressure.
• A commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion, and ensuring that every child and family is treated with dignity and respect.

We understand that candidates may use AI tools to assist with their applications. While we welcome innovation, we expect all submissions to reflect your own experience, skills, and achievements accurately. Please ensure your application is truthful and demonstrates your personal capabilities, as this will be assessed during the selection process.

Other information

If you would like to find out more about this role, please contact Krishane Madhavan at (email protected)

Closing date

23:59 Sunday 25th October 2026.

We review applications regularly throughout the advertising period and may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications. To ensure your application is considered, we recommend applying as early as possible.

Interview date

TBC

Buckinghamshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions
• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020 and 2023).

For further information on filtering please refer to Nacro guidance and the guidance published by the Ministry of Justice (see, in particular, the section titled 'Exceptions Order').

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are - Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that's why we're working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it's important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Business Unit

Buckinghamshire is a successful, growing place with fantastic natural assets, a highly productive economy and many resourceful and thriving communities. However, we are far from complacent and our new and ambitious unitary authority is well placed to tackle the challenges associated with growth, an aging population, climate change and inequalities in both opportunities and outcomes - particularly for our children and young people.

Children's Services is on an improvement journey and as our very recent Ofsted report shows, we have continued to improve despite the pressures of the pandemic and have built solid foundations for future success. Relationships with partners are strong and our collective response to the pandemic has strengthened and deepened our work together.

We have a big, ambitious agenda for Buckinghamshire, and our teams work collaboratively and at pace to make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people across the county.

We are looking for talented and driven individuals to help us achieve the best outcomes for our children, young people and families in Buckinghamshire. Our key priorities include continuing to protect vulnerable children and young people from harm, whilst sustaining an environment where social work practice can thrive. Through our vital work with our partners, including The Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Childrens Partnership, we continue to improve our collective response to children and young people who have been exposed to domestic abuse, exploitation, substance misuse and mental health issues.

No matter what role you take on in our Children's services, you will be part of a team who is dedicated to supporting children and their families to achieve their full potential.

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That's why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.

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